(2/2) Pacific Island Partnership for Cancer Health Equity (PIPCHE)

University Of Guam, Mangilao GU

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Specific Aims This supplement application addresses the need to better prepare researchers in Guam and Micronesia, particularly in data science, so they can pursue careers in cancer health disparities and other biomedical fields. Pacific Islanders are extremely underrepresented in the nation’s biomedical workforce, both on the faculty of universities and research institutions as well as in hospitals and public health departments. The limited number of Pacific Islanders with graduate degrees continues to impede progress in research and prevention of cancer health disparities. The Pacific Island Partnership for Cancer Health Equity (PIPCHE) is the National Cancer Institute’s only U54 partnership that advances cancer health equity in Pacific Islands Populations (PIP). PIPCHE’s overarching goal is to promote cancer health equity and mitigate the impact of cancer on PIP through increasing cancer research leadership and capacity in Hawai‘i, Guam and the USAPI. The University of Guam (UOG) is the minority-serving institution (MSI) within PIPCHE and is a USDA land- grant institution whose student population is 90% Asian Pacific Islander, of whom 51% are native Pacific Islanders. UOG is uniquely situated to recruit and inspire future professionals from these Pacific Islander groups as well as conduct research with the diverse communities living in Guam and other Micronesian islands. The current goal of PIPCHE’s Research Education Core (REC) is to train graduate students committed to addressing health disparities in Pacific indigenous populations. Despite the success of the PIPCHE-REC in training PIP students to pursue and complete graduate degrees, there remains a dearth of researchers competent in data science in Guam. Additionally, UOG has limited faculty with expertise in math, statistics, and data science, all burdened with full teaching schedules. Furthermore, UOG graduate students funded by PIPCHE-REC extensively utilized PIPCHE's Biostatistics Shared Resource (BSR) for thesis project data analysis due to their limited experience in statistics and data science. A new graduate program in Data Science has been developed at UOG, which would equip students with the technical skills to collect, manage, analyze, and interpret data, and will also be proficient in programming languages such as R and Python, and statistical analysis tools such as SAS and SPSS. The anticipated start of the program is Fall 2024. The proposed supplement seeks to support the establishment of a Data Science Center at the UOG, designed to complement the MS in Data Science program and bolster the region's data science capabilities. Integral to this program is the mandatory capstone course entitled "Statistical Research and Consulting." Within this course, students will undertake internships at the Data Science Center, engaging in collaborative projects with UOG researchers or partnering with government agencies. The Center will serve as a hub for additional support, offering students enhanced opportunities to gain valuable research skills and practical experience. As part of this initiative, we aim to enhance UOG's data science capabilities by upgrading our infrastructure with high-performance workstations and developing a comprehensive cancer database. We intend to investigate the feasibility of linking the Guam Cancer Registry (GCR) with data from Guam's Medicare, Medicaid, and Medically Indigent Program (MIP) recipients. This integrated dataset is expected to be a valuable resource for researchers. Furthermore, we plan to forge partnerships with regional community colleges to offer summer data science workshops. Aim 1: Establish the first regional Data Science Center in synergy with the MS in Data Science at UOG. The center will provide research support and advance education in data science in Guam and Micronesia. Aim 2: Establish infrastructure, security protocols and agreements necessary for the data linkage between Guam Cancer Registry and Medicare, Medicaid and MPI. The linkage would improve the completeness of GCR treatment data and will be the source for future studies, for example adherence to treatment and its impact on survival. Aim 3: Build data science education and training partnerships with the Northern Marianas College (NMC) and Palau Community College (PCC). These partnerships will enhance data science knowledge and skills of the researchers and students in NMC and PCC and create the pipeline for the data science path at UOG. We hypothesize that the establishment of the Data Science Center will significantly increase the number of underrepresented students, particularly Pacific Islanders, trained in statistics and data science. Impact: This supplement will greatly enhance the research and data science capacity of UOG, Guam and the greater Micronesian region. Students trained in the proposed program would be equipped with the necessary skills to work as data analysts in both academic, healthcare, and industry settings.